Chapter 5-Regrets and an Ambush!

Meanwhile…

The acolytes continued their walk towards their pinpointed destination, and so far, they reached a dense forest full of tall trees and small flower-filled bushes.

Raph was walking from behind with a sad but frustrated look on his face since he was too busy thinking about the way he treated Mikey earlier to focus on what's going on around him. Donnie noticed this first and slowed down his pace to walk next to him.

"You alright, Raph?" Donnie asked him in a concerned tone.

"What da ya think, Brainiac?" Raph replied in annoyance.

"I'll take that as a 'no', and you're thinking about what happened with Mikey earlier, right?" Donnie theoretically answered with a sad smile.

Raph sighed before he responded. "I messed up real bad, Donnie. I can't believe dat I let my anger do da talking, again…"

"You're not the only one who feels guilty, Raph; most of the other acolytes felt the same way, and I also hurt him verbally by saying that his actions earlier could have cost lives..." Donnie said with a guilty look on his face.

"Yeah, well ya wouldn't have had ta say dat if I hadn't forced ya all ta take my side, bro," Raph said as he looked at Donnie with an apologetic frown.

"Don't worry about it, Raph. You know now that what you did and said to Mikey was wrong, and that you want to make amends with him. I'm sure that he will accept your apology and forgive you when Leo comes back to us with him." Donnie said with a warm smile, meaning that he had accepted his sign of apology.

Raph smiled back and wrapped an arm around his immediate younger brother's shoulders, with Donnie doing the same with Raph, before saying, "Thanks, bro."

"Wait…do you hear that?" Faragi halted everyone after he heard a rustling noise coming from a bush that was a few feet away from the group.

By the time all the acolytes gathered together in the middle of the forest clearing and took out their weapons, the rustling got louder and suddenly a large group of dark demonic creatures jumped out to stand in front of the group and growled at them.

"Oh, Shell…" Donnie said in a nervous tone.

"What do we do?" asked Adam, before the creatures lunged forward all at once to attack.

"Fight!" Shouted Raph as he struck down the first few demons with his Banrai weapon.

Everyone followed Raph's lead and attacked the demons with all their might, including the use of both their weapons and their spirit animal avatars. The demons were able to land a few lucky shots on the acolytes though, which involved cuts and bruises, but they were still easily defeated.

Just as the acolytes thought that they would be victorious, the demon numbers began to increase again but with bigger and stronger demons. Raph and Donnie tried their best to defeat them whilst the others dealt with the smaller demons, but they were easily knocked off their feet and pinned down to the floor, and their weapons were thrown far away from their reach.

"No!" Donnie shouted in a panic as he struggled to get free.

"Get off, ya freak show!" Raph yelled as he also tried to get free, but to no avail.

Everyone else wanted to go and help the two turtles, but the large demon numbers were making it difficult to do both tasks at the same time.

Before all seemed lost, however, a flash of orange light zoomed by and struck the two larger demons so hard that they fell backward whilst letting go of Raph and Donnie before going limp on the ground.

The battle came to a sudden halt and when Raph and Donnie sat up and looked ahead from where they were pinned down to find out what was going on, they too were left in awe of what they saw;

The one who struck down the two large demons was Mikey, who was standing on top of one of them with his chi markings still glowing on his body.

"Mikey…?" Donnie said in a surprised tone.

Mikey turned around to see his brothers. "You guys ok?" he said before he went to help them up just as Leo, Master Splinter and the Ancient One appeared soon after.

"Master Splinter, Ancient One, what are you…?" Donnie asked before Leo jumped in. "We'll tell you later, but right now let's deal with these demons first!" Everyone nodded in agreement and the battle resumed.

As time went on, most of the acolytes were starting to show signs of fatigue due to their injuries, especially Leo who sustained a slash wound to his left leg that was bleeding a lot, and the demon numbers were still large even though it stopped growing.

Mikey looked on with worry; he had already seen this before in a vision that he had not long ago but he knew that it would only get worse if he didn't do something. Not taking any chances, Mikey ran towards the middle of an empty space slightly away from the fight and then shouted out to the others.

"Everyone, gather around me!" His brothers and the other acolytes looked at him and then at each other, before nodding and running towards Mikey.

Once he knew that everyone was near him, Mikey began to activate his spiritual energy and then jumped up high with his Inazuma weapon in hand.

"Let's go, Inazuma!" He shouted out before spinning around rapidly and shooting a shower of energy waves towards the demons. He kept on going for a couple of minutes despite the others looking on in concern that Mikey might collapse from severe exhaustion if he didn't stop soon. However, they then looked on in awe after seeing that the demon numbers were quickly diminishing to a point where there were none left at all.

Sensing this change, Mikey gradually stopped spinning and slowly began to descend towards the ground. Once he landed, his chi spirit energy faded and he suddenly collapsed onto his hands and knees whilst breathing heavily.

"Mikey!" "My son!" His brothers and sensei were there with him in an instant. "Are you ok, bro? You look like you're about to pass out any minute!" Donnie said in concern after checking him over for any serious injuries.

"I'll…be ok…I just…need a minute…" Mikey breathed as he tried to catch his breath and regain his composure.

"Looks like ya need more than a minute, Mike," Raph said as he noticed how exhausted his little brother really was, before helping him up by taking one of Mikey's arms and placing it around his shoulders and then wrapping his arm around Mikey's back, since he was still feeling guilty from how he treated him earlier and he wanted to talk to him later anyway.

"Thanks…" Mikey said quietly due to not only the exhaustion but also feeling unsure about how he should speak to the brother who said that he wasn't his brother anymore.

"No problem, Mike," Raph said, knowing that he needed to take things one baby step at a time with his brother in order to receive his forgiveness.

"I believe that we should find shelter so that we can rest and recover before we can continue with the mission," Master Splinter advised after he saw everyone looking injured and exhausted.

"You're right, Master Splinter. Let's get going," Leo said in agreement before he began to walk towards the forest exit, with everyone following him slowly with sore and aching bodies.

What they didn't notice before they left the forest completely was that a very large shadowy beast was watching them leave before he faded into the trees near the exit to continue observing them before planning its next move.